True to our ever-developing form, Zype has been working hard at some mobile app template enhancements and we’re excited to share them with you! You may have picked up on a few of these enhancements if you’ve been following our announcements closely, but we’ve outlined specifically how they’ll help improve the native mobile experience for your consumers and provided some helpful steps to get started.
If you’re anything like the Zypesters here in the New York office, then you love the ability to download content on your phone and watch later. Whether it’s because you ran out of time on the first go-round, or you’re planning your morning commute that involves some offline time, you know how valuable the “download” button can be.
Zype supports your audience by providing a download feature for iOS and Android mobile native apps, letting your consumers watch or listen later. To properly leverage this, you’ll want to make sure your content has downloadable renditions available (this includes MP4 for video, and M4A or MP3 for audio), and you have downloads enabled in your mobile app configuration.
Once enabled, consumers connected to WiFi can select and download content to add to the Downloads queue. Consumers can access all completed downloads in their Downloads tab - ready to view or listen offline!
Enabling downloads in your iOS or Android mobile app is simple, but each app build has a slightly different setup. Don’t fret, we’ve outlined everything for you in our Help Center, with links to articles on how to create and configure each app below. Go ahead, give your fans even more of what they love and allow them to watch anytime, anywhere!
Create an iOS app and enable downloads >
Create an Android mobile app and enable downloads >
You can level up your mobile layouts with the playlist gallery view, which showcases eye-catching slider images at the top of the app and carousels for nested playlists and videos. Hero Slider images can be configured to point directly into a video or playlist once selected. Not only are these banner-like images becoming an industry standard from a layout perspective, but they are highly useful in driving discovery of promoted items within your mobile apps; we've seen these especially successful for live events, with specifically tailored live sliders pointing right into the broadcast.
You can also configure your mobile apps to display beautiful carousels of videos and nested playlists, which provides an engaging discovery experience for content organized within a playlist. In the example below, you'll see two different sliders at the top of the Intergalactic Sports Network iOS app: Top 10 Space Race Moments and the Intergalactic Olympics, as well as playlist content displayed in an eye-catching carousel view:
If you're ready to try out the playlist gallery view, complete with sliders that open into videos or playlists, you'll need to do a bit of configuring in the apps themselves. For full guidance on both iOS and Android mobile implementation, check out our Help Center article linked below.
Enable mobile app sliders for the playlist gallery view >
When you have a live event, you want to make sure your content is streamed flawlessly. One critical piece of seamless distribution - and a great way to enhance the overall experience for your viewers - is to leverage a live off-air slate image for mobile. The off-air slate allows your consumers to see a thumbnail image of your choosing on top of the player, before the event begins.
Zype’s off-air slate is flexible; you can choose to update yourself at any time, or use Zype’s default off-air image. Need some ideas for slates and wondering what their outcomes might be? Check out our list below!
An enticing image ahead of a broadcast can draw in more viewers
Content-driven imagery can inform consumers about the nature of the broadcast
A brand-driven image can help propagate brand recognition and awareness
An aesthetically pleasing image acts to improve overall experience while your consumers wait for the broadcast to start
In the example below, you'll see the turquoise Intergalactic Sports Network custom slate on iOS, showing atop the player for the "Happy Times are Here Again" event, nested in Star Jumping playlist:
Easily configure a custom off-air slate image in one of three ways; you can access the live event thumbnail in the library view once the event has been created, you can adjust the slate in the live event creation flow (within the Live Wizard), or you can access the slate through the Settings page. If this is Greek to you, no worries, we’ve got everything outlined in our Help Center article linked below. Get a move-on!
Learn more about the Live Slate >
Anything you're wondering about? Don't be a stranger! Just email anna @zype.com to get in touch.
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